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Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 comprising the small family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Regalecidae. Found in all temperate to tropical oceans yet rarely seen, the oarfish family contains four species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 in two genera
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
. One of these, the king of herrings
King of herrings

The king of herrings, Regalecus glesne, an oarfish of the family Regalecidae, is found in all the world's oceans, at depths of between and ....
 (Regalecus glesne), is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive, at up to in length.

The common name
Common name

A common name is a name in general use within a community . A common name is not necessarily a commonly used name.Many of the conventions and traditions described in this article are based on the English language, and thus may not apply to common names in other languages....
 oarfish is presumably in reference to either their highly compressed and elongated bodies, or to the former (but now discredited) belief that the fish "row" themselves through the water with their pelvic fins.






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Encyclopedia


Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 comprising the small family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Regalecidae. Found in all temperate to tropical oceans yet rarely seen, the oarfish family contains four species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 in two genera
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
. One of these, the king of herrings
King of herrings

The king of herrings, Regalecus glesne, an oarfish of the family Regalecidae, is found in all the world's oceans, at depths of between and ....
 (Regalecus glesne), is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive, at up to in length.

The common name
Common name

A common name is a name in general use within a community . A common name is not necessarily a commonly used name.Many of the conventions and traditions described in this article are based on the English language, and thus may not apply to common names in other languages....
 oarfish is presumably in reference to either their highly compressed and elongated bodies, or to the former (but now discredited) belief that the fish "row" themselves through the water with their pelvic fins. The family name Regalecidae is derived from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 regalis, meaning "royal". The occasional beachings of oarfish after storms, and their habit of lingering at the surface when sick or dying, make oarfish a probable source of many sea serpent
Sea serpent

A sea serpent or sea dragon is a mythological sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today....
 tales.

Although the larger species are considered game fish
Game fish

Game fish are fish pursued for sport by recreational anglers. They can be freshwater or marine fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, though increasingly anglers practise catch and release to improve fish populations....
 and are (to a minor extent) fished commercially, oarfish are rarely caught alive; their flesh is not well regarded due to its gelatinous consistency.

Anatomy and morphology

The tapering, ribbony silver bodies of oarfish—together with an impressive, pinkish to cardinal red dorsal fin
Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
—help explain the perception of majesty taken from rare encounters. The dorsal fin originates from above the (relatively small) eye
Eye

Eyes are Organ that detect light, and send signals along the optic nerve to the visual system and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system....
s and runs the entire length of the fish. Of the approximately 400 dorsal fin rays, the first 10 to 12 are elongated to varying degrees, forming a trailing crest embellished with reddish spots and flaps of skin at the ray tips. The pelvic fins are similarly elongated and adorned, reduced to 1 to 5 rays each. The pectoral fins are greatly reduced and situated low on the body. The anal fin is completely absent and the caudal fin may be reduced or absent as well, with the body tapering to a fine point. All fins lack true spines
Spine (biology)

In biology, spine or spiny may refer to:*Spine , needle-like structures in plants*Spine , needle-like structures in animalsSpine may also refer to:...
. At least one account, from researchers in New Zealand, describes the oarfish as giving off "electric shocks" when touched.

Like other members of its order, the oarfish has a small yet highly protrusible oblique mouth with no visible teeth
Tooth

Teeth are small whitish structures found in the jaws of many vertebrates that are used to tear, scrape, and chew food. Some animals, particularly carnivores, also use teeth for hunting or defense....
. The body is scale
Scale (zoology)

In most biology nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration....
less and the skin covered with easily abraded, silvery guanine
Guanine

Guanine is one of the five main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine....
. In the streamer fish (Agrostichthys parkeri), the skin is clad with hard tubercle
Tubercle

A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, but it has slightly different meaning depending on which family of plants or animals it is used to refer to....
s. All species lack gas bladder
Gas bladder

The gas bladder is an internal gas-filled Organ that contributes to the ability of a fish to control its buoyancy, and thus to stay at the current water depth without having to waste energy in swimming....
s and the number of gill rakers is variable.

Oarfish coloration is also variable; the flanks are commonly covered with irregular bluish to blackish streaks, black dots, and squiggles. These markings quickly fade following death. The king of herrings is by far the largest member of the family at a published total length of 11 meters (with unconfirmed reports of 15 meters or more) and 272 kilograms in weight. The streamer fish is known to reach 3 meters total length whilst the largest recorded specimen of Regalecus russelii measured just 5.5 centimeters standard length. It is probable that this little-known species can regularly reach a maximum length of at least 15.2 meters (50 ft).

Distribution

The members of the family are known to have a worldwide range. However, specific encounters with live individuals in situ
In situ

In situ is a Latin phrase meaning in the place. It is used in many different contexts....
 are rare and distribution information is collated from records of oarfishes caught or washed ashore.

Ecology and life history

Rare encounters with divers and accidental catches by trawls have supplied what little is known of oarfish behavior and ecology
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
. Apparently solitary animals, oarfish may frequent significant depths up to . In Bermuda
Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1350 kilometres south of Halifax Regional Municipality, Canada....
, Teddy Tucker, a fisherman and treasure hunter, has reported their surfacing at night when lights were at the surface. It is possible that the light attracted them.

Behavior

It was not until 2001 that an oarfish was filmed alive and in situ: the 1.5 meter fish was spotted by a group of US Navy personnel during the inspection of a buoy in the Bahamas . The oarfish was observed to propel itself via an amiiform mode of swimming; that is, rhythmically undulating the dorsal fin whilst keeping the body itself straight. Perhaps indicating a feeding posture, oarfish have been observed swimming in a vertical orientation, with their long axes perpendicular to the ocean surface. In this posture the downstreaming light would silhouette the oarfishes' prey, making them easier to spot.

Feeding ecology

Oarfish feed primarily on zooplankton
Zooplankton

Zooplankton are the heterotrophic type of plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in the Pelagic zone of oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water....
, selectively straining tiny euphausiids, shrimp
Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, Decapoda crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh water and seawater. Adult shrimp are Filter feeder benthic animals living close to the bottom....
, and other crustacean
Crustacean

Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
s from the water. Small fish, jellyfish
Jellyfish

Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. They have several different morphologies that represent several different cnidarian classes including the Scyphozoa , Staurozoa , Cubozoa , and Hydrozoa ....
, and squid
Squid

Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
 are also taken. Large open-ocean carnivores are all likely predators of oarfish, and include the Oceanic whitetip shark
Oceanic whitetip shark

The oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus, is a large pelagic zone shark of tropical and warm temperate seas. It is a stocky shark, most notable for its long, white-tipped, rounded Fish anatomy#Fins....
.

Life history

The oceanodromous Regalecus glesne is recorded as spawning
Spawn (biology)

Spawning is the production or depositing of large quantities of egg s in water. The process is done by marine animals such as amphibians and fish....
 off Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 from July to December; all species are presumed to be non-guarders and release brightly coloured, buoyant eggs
Egg (biology)

In most birds and reptiles, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo....
, up to across, which are incorporated into the zooplankton. The eggs hatch after about three weeks into highly active, larva
Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
e that feed on other zooplankton. The larvae have little resemblance to the adults, with long dorsal and pelvic fins and extensible mouths. Larvae and juveniles have been observed drifting just below the surface. In contrast, adult oarfish are rarely seen at the surface when not sick or injured.

Etymology and taxonomic history

The oarfish family contains three species in two genera.

  • Genus Agrostichthys
    • Streamer fish, Agrostichthys parkeri (Benham, 1904)
  • Genus Regalecus
    • King of herrings
      King of herrings

      The king of herrings, Regalecus glesne, an oarfish of the family Regalecidae, is found in all the world's oceans, at depths of between and ....
      , Regalecus glesne Ascanius, 1772
    • Regalecus kinoi Castro-Aguirre, Arvizu-Martinez & Alarcon-Gonzalez, 1991
    • Regalecus russelii (Cuvier, 1816)


See also

  • List of fish families
    List of fish families

    This is a list of fish family sorted alphabetically by scientific name.#A - #B - #C - #D - #E-F - #E-F -#G - #H - #I-K - #I-K - #I-K -#L - #M - #N - #O - #P - #R - #S - #T - #U-Z - #U-Z - #U-Z - #U-Z - #U-Z - #U-Z...
  • List of fish common names
    List of fish common names

    This is a list of fish common names. While some common names refer to a single species or family , others have been used for a confusing variety of different types; the articles listed here should explain the possibilities if the name is ambiguous....


Bibliography

  • Pete Thomas, , The Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2006.
  • . Russell Jenkins. February 2005 version. The Times Online; February 21, 2003.
  • Fishes: An Introduction to ichthyology. Peter B. Moyle and Joseph J. Cech, Jr; p. 338. Printed in 2004. Prentice-Hall, Inc; Upper Saddle River, NJ. ISBN 0-13-100847-1


External links

  • of an oarfish captured at the surface.
  • of an oarfish hovering in the water
  • beached in Mexico. Newsgroup entry with photos.
  • Three large oarfish found dead in North East England.